Uconn

Huskies in good shape for NCAA tournament By Ed Daigneault Republican-American

Connecticut center Amida Brimah (35) passes through the reach of Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell (24) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the finals of the American Athletic Conference men's tournament Saturday, March 15, 2014, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

That's about the only thing UConn is going to concern itself with after Louisville took the American Athletic Conference tournament championship, 71-61, on Saturday night at FedEx Forum. The Huskies aren't going to focus on being dominated by the Cardinals for a second time in a week, mostly because everybody has been dominated by Louisville lately.

The Cardinals won three games here by an average of 33.3 points. They have beaten UConn the last two times by an average of 21.5 points. UConn wasn't playing well when it entered the final regular season game at the KFC Yum! Center. It played well in the tournament and even managed to do it for stretches Saturday.

Ultimately, the Huskies look to be in good shape for the NCAA Tournament.

"I was proud of our guys that we kept fighting," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "Now we go into the next tournament. We want to win a national championship. I still believe in this team. We got to clean things up, but I liked our execution in the second half. We showed heart and competed, and that's what I like.

"Hopefully, it carries over into the NCAA Tournament."

UConn was mostly playing with house money Saturday. It wasn't expected to win, so not getting completely run out of the building was an accomplishment after Louisville thrashed Rutgers and Houston by a combined 90 points.

The Huskies shot 50-percent in the second half, held Louisville to 32-percent shooting in the half and committed just four turnovers. The NCAA selection committee certainly won't hold Saturday against UConn, which ought to be solid as a No. 5 seed.

After a one-year ban, the Huskies will return to the NCAA tourney.

"I'm definitely happy," guard Shabazz Napier said. "It's a great thing to hear your name being called with your teammates, and see everybody smiling and knowing that we have a chance to hoist another trophy."

Honors: Louisville guard Russ Smith was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. He scored a career-high 42 points in Friday's semifinal victory over Houston and followed with 19 points Saturday.

He was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Montrezl Harrell and Chris Jones, UConn's Shabazz Napier, Cincinnati's Sean Kilpatrick and Central Florida's Isaiah Sykes.

Against the best: Ollie tried to match wits with Louisville coach Rick Pitino for the fourth time Saturday night. Memphis coach Josh Pastner used some hyberbole last week in calling Ollie a "future Hall of Famer." Pitino is already in the Hall of Fame and has coached Kentucky and Louisville to national titles.

Ollie has done quite well with UConn, but he still has a long way to go to match Pitino. About 15 years ago, Pitino cut Ollie from the Boston Celtics during the NBA summer league. Pitino instead went with his former Kentucky guard, Wayne Turner.

"Actually, I grew so much with Rick that summer, so I became a better point guard with him and he came to the decision where he had to let me go. But when you have a setback like that, it just gets you ready for another opportunity," Ollie said. "It's nothing against Rick. I love Rick to death. He's a great coach, a good friend of mine, and I could learn a lot from Rick Pitino."

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